I have since heard that federal and state governments don’t like them and what they do, and there is indeed plenty of friction between them. In fact, it is my understanding that there is a special Rainbow Family task force that deploys to whatever locations they choose to hold their gathering each year.

But to my knowledge, no one has ever made the kind of fuss about Rainbow Family gatherings as has been made about the occupation at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Why? To my knowledge, state and federal governments have never felt like it was worth killing anyone over it. If Bundys and company can be charged with “impeding federal officers,” and conspiring to do it, can’t the same be said of the Rainbow Family? What is the difference? Very good question.

The only real difference that I can think of boils down to one word: “guns.”

The school district announced that the schools would be closed for the whole week out of concern for public safety. The minute I heard that I knew something was fishy. The wildlife refuge was out in the middle of nowhere, at least 30 miles from town. When I learned that the FBI wanted to use the Jr. High School as a command center, it all made sense. Now that is truly an armed occupation. Eventually the entire town of Burns became completely occupied by armed outsiders, state and federal agents, officers, contractors and officers, who have completely taken over the community in what is truly the epitome of an armed occupation.

...Because these particular kooks happened to be wearing cowboy hats and bearing arms, however, instead of rocking ponytails and baring the rest of their bodies, impatient Governor Kate Brown, the FBI, and apparently plenty of others, were more than willing to engage in an armed occupation of their own, and way too eager to resort to violence, with no apparent reservation about spilling the occupants’ blood, sooner rather than later.